Throughout chapter 10, the reader becomes informed of how news spread of Chris’s death. At first, the troopers were clueless of who he was and where he was from. After placing a story in the newspaper, they received many phone calls from people saying that they knew him. One of the first calls came from Jim Gallien. He told the troopers that the man who was dead was Alex, the name by which Jim knew him by. As time went on, more and more calls came in until Westerberg caught wind of Chris’s death. Westerberg was able to call in with Alex’s real name and social security number from the information he had filled out on sheets for work. After news reached the family of Chris, the reader learns more about what Chris’s life was like growing up. As a young child, he loved to be alone. He was very intelligent, but when placed in the gifted program, he did tried everything he could think of to get out of it, because it meant he had to do more work. He was great at making money and was very giving. He would go into the city and pass out burgers to the poor people. He did not like listening to instruction and when given any, he would ignore it. Chris has very high moral standards, and in chapter 12, he goes to El Segundo and discovers some things about his family that disturb him very much. He learned that his father had an affair with his previous wife while being married to Billie. He told lies so that he could keep a double life, but when the truth was discovered, Billie and Walt started arguing and he had a divorce with his first wife, which did not end amicably. After finding this out, instead of talking to someone about it, he held a grudge against his parents and was angry toward them. In chapter 14, the reader learns about a trip made by Krakauer to devil’s thumb. He took this journey alone and almost ran out of food, until the storm passed and food was able to be dropped from a plane to him. At the end of the chapter, he is climbing to the top, but as he continues to climb, he starts to hyperventilate and has to go back down because he is unable to make it any further.
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